The national transporters have also issued a set of guidelines to zonal headquarters for its catering staff, stating no employee having fever, cough, runny nose or difficulty in breathing “should be deployed in the business of food handling on the Indian Railways”.

The novel coronavirus cases in India rose to 169 on Thursday after 18 fresh cases were reported from various parts of the country, according to the health ministry.

The cases include 25 foreign nationals – 17 from Italy, 3 from the Philippines, two from the UK, one each belonging to Canada, Indonesia, and Singapore.

The figure also includes three deaths reported from Delhi, Karnataka, and Maharashtra so far.